NASCAR Truck Series drivers hope for expanded schedule in 2013

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With the 2013 season schedule expected to be released soon, some drivers shared their opinions for the series to expand back to 25 races in a Friday news conference before opening practice for the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway.

"I'm hearing a lot of that chatter in the garage," points leader Timothy Peters said. "I think it would be great to get back to 25 races."

This season started on Feb. 24, and the 22-race season is a little more than one-third finished. June was the first month this season with three race weekends. The series raced just once in February and March. The series consisted of at least 25 races each year from 2003 until this season.

"Hopefully next year they'll get 25," Matt Crafton said. "If you race on back-to-back weekends and have a bad weekend, usually you can recover the next weekend. But we have to have salt in the wound for a whole month."

Races are more frequent from here on out, squeezing in 13 more races until Nov. 16.

"I'm looking forward to the rest of the season," rookie Ty Dillon said. "I'm really excited to get to some races where we race back-to-back weekends and stop having so many long weekends off."

Crafton said he would like to see an addition of road courses and even an extra race at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway on the new schedule. Peters has heard the possibility of a schedule that suits his short-track history.

"Everybody is curious for a couple weeks when it does come out," Peters said. "I can't wait. Hopefully, we get that mixture of short tracks and road courses."